"The Crazy Game of Meta Tags
I always knew that developing a website entailed work. Somehow, though, I thought the most difficult piece was the page design and layout because it greets the visitor and gives the first impression. Perhaps this is the most challenging part. But there are features of every web page that are just as important as style and design. The crazy thing is that most people never even see these other features. They are called meta tags. If you have a business website, you really can't do without them!
First of all, what are meta tags? They are the descriptors found in the head of your HTML code (on every single page) that attract search engines to your site. You can substantially increase the traffic that comes to your web site by writing meta tags, and understanding their value.
There are three different kinds of meta tags: the page TITLE tag, the page DESCRIPTION tag, and the KEYWORD tag. Some search engines will only look at one or two of these tag types; others will look for all of them; others are not concerned with meta tags at all. The top search engines, however, usually do look for meta tags so it's better to be safe than sorry: put them on each page of your site!
Well, in an interesting way. If and when you submit your URL to a search engine, they normally will send a "spider" to inventory your whole site and categorize it. When this occurs, your meta tags are sought and found. The page title will be the banner that is seen when the search engine pulls up the results for an individual doing a search. The description is the more detailed information that usually follows the title. The keywords are extremely important. When someone goes to their favorite search engine (Google, Ask, GoTo, Yahoo, etc.), they can enter a question or a statement. However, most of the time the surfer simply enters words. For example, "businesswoman, entrepreneur, business start-up". When this happens, the search engine attempts to match up the words entered with the KEYWORDS that are on file (which come from the web pages that have been submitted and categorized). It's amazing to think that all of this happens instantaneously giving the person on the other end several pages of information on hundreds of web sites. If you want your site to be near the top, it's smart to learn as much as possible about what kinds of tags the search engines really "like".
There are a number of options. The easier choice is to use software to assist you (explained in detail below). But if you are going to write your own meta tags, it's good to know where to find them. For this, you need to access your HTML code. This can be done by opening your web page in Notepad, opening it in Dreamweaver, or hitting the HTML tab at the bottom of the page if you are composing your web site in Microsoft Front Page. Once you find the HTML area (funny looking symbols with recognizable text interspersed), go to the top of the page. It should start with <head>. All that lies within the page head (between the <head> and </head> tags is virtually unseen by your page visitors. Yet this is where your meta tags are placed. That's because the search engines do look in the page head when spidering your site. For an example of what the HTML code (and meta tags) should look like in a "page head", click here.
I can really only share with you my own experience writing meta tags. Boy was it tedious! But once it was done, it was done. Unless you change the content of an article drastically, you don't have to revisit the meta tags. The way that I did it was to utilize a computer program called TagGen (which of course stands for Tag Generator). It is wonderful because it guides you through the process of writing tags in a step-by-step fashion, performs spell checks, reviews all content and then actually adds the tags to your document! How great is that? Now it does take some time (I won't lie), but not as much as doing it by hand would take. If you want to check out TagGen for yourself, please do it here. They have raised the price since I bought it, but for some of you, it may still be a good option.
There are some other things to be aware of if you decide to "go it alone" in your meta tag writing. There are certain restrictions for the tags. For example, you should not use more that 80 characters in your TITLE tag; no more that 200 characters composing your DESCRIPTION tag (some say keep it under 150); and no more that 1000 characters with your KEYWORD tags (this one would be pretty hard to do!). You also need to make sure that you do not spam the search engines. They really don't like that. This means don't repeat the same keywords over and over again or the same phrases. Make sure your DESCRIPTION and TITLE tags are sensible sentences and not keywords. If a search engine decides you broke the rules, you will lose all exposure so be careful.
If you want to learn more about meta tags, check out Jim Wilson's straightforward advice at: htttp://www.virtualpromote.com Jim passed away in 2003, but there are still some useful resources at his site.
For more information on writing meta tags, check out:
For some pretty cool meta tag tools, check out:
ABS's Meta Tag Analyzer - this site will actually look at your META tags and give you feedback. Beware that they are very honest and may send you back to make changes.
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